Queen of Pentacles
by AmazingGraceless
Summary: Morag MacDougal is a Seer who gets a pack of tarot cards for her birthday and discovers a truth about her family and herself.


**AN: For QFL, 1,029 words. Prompt: Queen of Pentacles: ****Upright: Practicality, Creature Comforts, Financial Security, Reversed: Self-Centredness, Jealousy, Smothering**

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Morag MacDougal knew her pack of tarot cards well. Every MacDougal witch received a pack of them on their thirteenth birthdays. Seers and sibyls like them recognized the significance more than anyone.

Thirteen was the age when one realized the unpleasant parts of life for the first time— the start of a transition into adulthood. A lack of luck, wickedness abounding. But also power— one of the most powerful numbers in magic— any Arithomancer worth their weight in Galleons knew that.

Morag saw two sisters come before her with their traditional gifts.

All three of them were Seers, like their grandmother before them, and her grandmother before her. Morag watched, the silent yet curious Ravenclaw she was— even before she came to Hogwarts— as her oldest sister, Katrina, took the slim box from their frowning mother.

"I wish I could give you something else," Miranda MacDougal said. "It's just— it makes me—"

Miranda stopped as her eyes flashed a brighter green than usual. Morag instantly knew that her mother was jealous of the gifts of her daughters.

It wasn't her fault, Morag reasoned away as Miranda refused to teach Katrina how to use the deck, how to read the future in a pack of cards, or find a teacher for her.

Besides, she was clearly just waiting for the other two sisters. To make things fair, since traditions often did discriminate against those who were born later. It was no one's fault what order in which they were born.

Morag contented herself to wait, and told her sisters to do the same. After all, it would be some time before Morag would have her own set of tarot cards. Not because of money, for the MacDougal family certainly was financially secure at worst and affluent at best. They weren't the filthy rich Malfoys, but they were far above the Weasleys.

It was tradition that would make them all wait, in attempt to prevent jealousy.

Not that it stopped Katrina or Isobel from learning on their own, from textbooks and later Professor Trelawney.

Morag discovered this fact during the summer holidays, when she'd just gone downstairs for a quick spot of tea and perhaps a biscuit—- or two— before back off to bed. She'd heard giggling and the frantic flipping of pages coming from Katrina's room.

If she knocked, she knew she'd be turned away, so she carefully tried the handle. It came open, revealing her two sisters sitting cross-legged on Katrina's favorite rug, the one with the Arithomancy diagrams on it that Miranda had bought her after choosing the subject for Katrina's schedule in her third year.

They held their tarot cards out, going through the hand-painted, unique designs, reading from the light of the candles lit by wand what every combination meant, and how to use their special tool to uncover the mysteries of the universe.

"No fair," Morag whined, revealing herself.

Isobel scrambled to her feet, nearly knocking over the candles. She was not exactly the most graceful, and that fact was not helped by her sudden growth spurt.

"Shut the door!" Katrina hissed.

Morag did so, more out of a blind obedience borne out of being the youngest than the feeling that she ought to.

"How could you?" Morag asked. "We were all supposed to wait until I was thirteen—"

Katrina and Isobel shared a glance that infuriated Morag.

"Mum never said anything about that," Katrina said softly.

"Come sit down," Isobel said, trying to regain some control of the situation.

"What are you talking about?" Morag still did sit. "I thought it was so we wouldn't get jealous of each other so we'd learn it at the same time—"

Katrina threw back her head laughing. "As if!"

"It was so Mum wouldn't get jealous," Isobel explained, something sad in her eyes.

"Why would Mum get jealous?"

"Didn't you ever notice?" Katrina asked. "Mum doesn't have the Sight, not like us."

"So?" Morag found herself to be too confused and heavy-headed— maybe because she was tired.

"She wish she'd had it," Isobel said. "She's jealous of us."

"It's not true," Morag said. "She means well. She's always so proud of us—"

"Because we're taking the classes she wanted us to," Katrina snarled as she shut a Divination book. "I actually didn't want to take Arithomancy— I wanted to take Divination— did you know that? It was so we could learn what we needed— it's only practical."

"It's her way of living through us," Isobel said with a shrug. "I love our mum, but you have to admit she has faults, Morag."

Morag stood up. "You're all just being nasty and selfish."

With that, she turned away and went back to bed.

The truth of the matter was that she just wouldn't understand exactly what her sisters meant until her own thirteenth birthday came around.

She was excited that winter morning to get up and go to the Owlry. Even though it was cold, being December in Scotland, she merely bundled up in her winter cloak with silver fastenings and wrapped both her own blue and bronze skirt as well as two of her sisters' around her neck and trudged up, determined to receive the traditional gift.

The family owl munched on owl pellets as Morag stroked his beak and unwrapped the brown parcel, revealing her own hand-painted deck. The first card to show was the Queen of Pentacles.

Morag, who was in Divination that year, against her mother's wishes— a fact that had made their summer miserable— recognized the meanings immediately.

Upright, it meant practicality, creature comforts, and financial security. Reverse side meant self-centeredness, smothering, and jealousy.

It hit her then. Miranda MacDougal never planned on her daughters ever learning the traditions of their Seer lineage. Because she was those things. Jealous, smothering, self-centered.

It was reverse-side up in the package.

But if Morag turned it, she saw her sisters. They were chasing the tools for their futures i school— practicality in pursuit of financial security.

There was duality in their line and in the cards.

Where Morag would fall, she wasn't sure. But she was ready to learn.


End file.
